Things I Love, Things I Hate

Musings about the things I love most: my family, sports, music, TV, food and travel. A few thoughts here and there about the things I hate. There aren’t many.

Saturday, September 11, 2004

Tonight, He's History!

A few hours till game time. Tonight, Barry Bonds will hit two home runs to reach the amazing milestone of 700. We’ll be in section 130 to see it happen.

The cosmos says it will happen tonight. In 2001, in wake of 9-11, Barry Bonds’ homeruns kept me going through global and personal hardship. TS and I saw Bonds hit No. 68 on Sept. 28 (see above) and I will never forget the majestic soaring shot to dead center. It helped the Giants win the game. That same year, we saw Barry Bonds and his family in the United Red Carpet Room in SFO; he graciously allowed a few fans to take pictures.

In addition to my wife, I wish all my baseball buddies were there. I’ll bring something in honor of my original baseball buddy. He’d be rooting against Bonds as he and my uncle saw The Babe set the original record, and he and I saw Henry Aaron tear up The Babe’s record.

Thursday, September 09, 2004

Laurel Resting Personified

The Political Cup Half Full

On second thought, I now believe I was wrong in my assessment of the primary. Despite the results, my neighbor, Roselyn O’Connell, did get her name on the map and show the local Republican powers that be that she could be a viable candidate come 2006. My sense is she showed herself to be a person of character, a good communicator and someone possessing sound reasoning for her stances on issues of the day. Not every Republican probably agrees with her more moderate views, but no one in her party can deny the class and manner in which she approached the campaign.

Next.. Live & Uncensored On Web Radio

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

Cancer And Marriage

There is a poignant story on the front page of today’s Wall Street Journal (along with Baseball America and Gourmet, my lone print stalwarts) about the impact of cancer on a marriage. The story did not make me cry, but could have. I deem myself more fortunate than the man in the report, but the saga touched me.

My wife’s battle with cancer in 2000 eventually cost me my job and damaged my already fragile health. A co-worker saw an opportunity to push me out of way, and suggested to my boss that I would be too busy tending to my wife and daughter to perform at the executive level for which I was hired. My boss believed him and gradually my role changed until I was gone in early 2002.

One month after my wife’s final radiation treatment, insulin was added to my diabetic regimen as my glucose readings were totally out of control. Was this directly related to the stress from my wife’s illness? Who knows… and honestly, who cares?

Here is where things differ and I consider myself fortunate. While the man in the story sought solace from his fellow parishioners and community I was fortunate to have a support group of one. My support group was the person whom I flew halfway around the world to bring into our lives in 1992. Her instinctive warmth and caring to both my wife and me are not to be measured in words. Oddly, four years later, our daughter remembers nothing. The time had to be as awful for her as it was for us, but her inner strength was and is something that will certainly power her future to a wonderful fruition.

My wife’s illness has made our already tight bond even stronger. She’s certainly not the person she was before her illness—she’s actually a more improved version of her previous (and pretty wonderful) self. She stops to smell the roses (and cactus flowers), works on political causes, volunteers at our daughter’s school and strives for nutritionally perfection.

I am a better person as well. Candidly, it would be impossible to appreciate her more than I did before her illness. But losing my job and changes in my health made me understand life with even sharper focus; I know what’s important and wake up every day, look around, and count my blessings

73 Hours In Traffic

Plus One

I saw Henry Aaron's 501st home run (see chart in link) hit off of Grant (Buck) Jackson of the Phillies. There were actually three outs for the Atlanta Braves in the ninth inning at the time, but the catcher muffed the ball on the batter before Aaron (Felix Millan), allowing the batter to reach first base. Aaron promptly smacked the ball into the left field stands at Connie Mack Stadium, breaking a chair in the process. If we don't see #700 Saturday night, #701 will do.

Say What?

My Personal Patriot

My wife has already been up for three hours as I get rolling on my workday. It’s primary election day here in Arizona, and she’s working the polls. She’s about 10 years young than the next youngest person, so this effort takes patience and dedication, to say the least. This endeavor has already required a few hours of training and a few hours of set up. By the way, the set up was made longer when one of the election officials was killed in a car accident.

This is one of things I love about my wife: her devotion to a noble public cause and her willingness to sacrifice sleep and creature comforts to do her civic duty. It should be her running for Congress in five years, but she’s probably a little to shy to make many public speeches. She sure is smart enough and caring enough to be a great leader.

So, today, I add a new star to my personal flag—a star in honor of my wife, the poll sitter!

Nail Two Things Together...

Monday, September 06, 2004

Vacation 2005

Labor Day Fun

While my wife labored today, my daughter and I took a quick spin around the area. We stopped at Barnes & Noble in Kierland Commons for some free reading and music sampling (courtesy of the Red Dot Network) and then to Sur La Table to check the wedding registry for my cousin’s upcoming Napa Valley event.

Then off to lunch at Red Robin, one of the million fast food and semi-fast food places landing in our rapidly growing neighborhood. There’s a Sizzler, Subway, Blue Agave, Elephant Bar and an Arbuelo’s Mexican all in the same center. There really isn’t a home within a mile, but the center is at the juncture of Scottsdale Road and 101. And there’s more restaurants to come.

Lunch was fine but the company was exceptional. My daughter loves playing with her new cellphone, which we bought, for emergencies. She actually doesn’t have that many people to call and doesn’t like talking on the phone, so ….whatever

Sunday, September 05, 2004

Celebrity Sighting

We were in the Verizon store in the Scottsdale Promenade this afternoon and there was Paul Harvey. Funny, my wife was just talking about him. Harvey has been a "Valley" resident for years after working for decades in Chicago.

Late Bloomer

Wieners & Weiners

The program says it all

Oh, there were Wieners/Weiners out the ying-yang, so to speak.

Last night, we went to the Wiener dog races at Phoenix Greyhound Park. For the most part, it was a hilarious and touching evening of fun. My wife said she wanted to commemorate 21 years she’s had the surname Weiner.

Parking at the racetrack was a bit disorganized, but the attendants were gracious enough to allow my handicapped placard and me to park very close to the track. We got in line, watched the daschounds enter the park and started laughing. Being 15-year Phoenix residents (not consecutively), my wife and I were not surprised by the broad cross-section of people at the event. It was not a “blue blood” event, to say the least. Our daughter was a little put off by the array of tattoos, smoking and beer guzzling.

Two loving greyhounds

The parade of dogs started at 6:30 and they stood in the track infield and around the outdoor grandstand. Also, there were a number of greyhounds from the Arizona Greyhound Rescue group. We love greyhounds and I petted one who immediately clung to my leg, making me feel warm inside. (Warm outside too, it was 102-degrees).

Squirt: Our Favorite

At the parade of hounds, we spotted Squirt, the reason we were at the event. My wife met Squirt and his owner outside a Basha’s supermarket and donated to the race. My wife got the event details and the race went on our anniversary calendar in dark ink.

Gracee, the winner of heat one with "colorful" owner

Wienerschnitzel sponsored the races. The mascot looks bored.

We wandered around for a while before the race, petted dogs and bought souvenir t-shirts. I took pictures until my digital storage card ran out of space. My favorite shot (see above) is of the dog that won the first heat. His owner was covered with tattoos but sure knew thing or two about daschound racing. Gracee won the first heat by a huge margin.

Heat two was the main event. As an aside, our daughter is short, even for a 12-year old. She had a lot of trouble seeing the race as we stood by the infield fence. She jockeyed her way to the front, but got into a shoving/glaring match with a man who hoisted his small child in his shoulders. The daughter sulked that it was as if she was never there, as she could not see anything. She said that if she wore her new t-shirt to school and kids asked her about the event, she would have to say it was as if she hadn’t attended. Yes, put away the violins.

I still laugh thinking about heat two. The gate opened and eight Wiener Dogs ran helter-skelter around the track. One dog sniffed the rail and chatted with some nearby workers; another dog ran back to the starting gate in a state of confusion. Eventually, one of the owners ran down the track and a few dogs followed. Squirt, our favorite, is still looking for the finish line as we sit here. The dogs were like a bunch of drunks getting off a long plane ride with wobbly legs.